Battle Prize Read Free Page A

lunch." To Rani's astonishment he turned and started for the door.
    "Wait just a damn minute, Gage Fletcher!" she stormed behind him. "You're not going anywhere until this is straightened out!"
    "Yes, I am. I'm going to lunch," he said gently, pausing in the doorway with one large hand on the jamb as he glanced back. "I'm hungry, even if you aren't"
    "What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't walk in here and make accusations like that, then just turn around and walk out!"
    "I've invited you to come with me," he reminded her. "But one way or another, I'm going to eat lunch. I make it a habit not to miss meals," he added by way of explanation.
    "Rani," Donna put in swiftly, "perhaps you'd better hear what he has to say." She looked concerned but not unduly upset.
    "If he has anything important to say, he can stand here and tell me face-to-face!" Rani cast a glance of pure withering scorn at the man in the doorway. "What's the matter? Afraid to tell me here, where there might be witnesses to any accusations you might make?"
    "Maybe." The door closed softly behind him as Gage stepped out onto the sidewalk.
    "Why, that coward!" Rani blazed, coming around from behind the counter. "Who the hell does he think he is?"
    "A man with a message, apparently," Donna observed thoughtfully, eyeing her sister's tense figure with concealed amusement. "A message you're not going to get unless you have lunch with him."
    "He's not going to get away with this. I'll have his hide and then I'll have Aaron Prescott's!" Rani raced for the door, flinging it open. She hit the sidewalk in time to see Gage Fletcher easing his length into a black Jaguar that was parked at the curb. She leaped for the passenger door and had it open before Gage had gotten himself completely into the front seat.
    "Change your mind?" he inquired politely as she dropped into the leather seat beside him.
    "You're not going to get away with this, Gage Fletcher," she vowed between set teeth. "I want to hear exactly what that fool Prescott thinks he's doing, sending you after me with mysterious messages and threats."
    "I don't recall making any threats," Gage protested mildly as he switched on the ignition and checked the side mirror before pulling out into traffic.
    "I think you probably would have if Donna hadn't walked in at the right moment. But you didn't want to risk anyone else witnessing them, did you?" she charged tightly. "You were going to sneak off without saying anything too incriminating!"
    "Discipline," he said half under his breath.
    "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "I told you earlier, Rani. In a battle, discipline or the lack of it can make all the difference. I just used William the Conqueror's famous bit of strategy and you fell for it, just as the entire left wing of the Saxon army fell for it No discipline. Just a lot of glorious, brave, headstrong impetuousness. Makes for colorful warfare, but it's not likely to put you on the winning side."
    "You mean you faked your, er , retreat?" she gasped in dawning outrage and chagrin. "You weren't really going to run off without telling me exactly why you came in the first place?"
    "I decided it would be easiest to draw you out from behind your defenses," Gage allowed, the edge of his mouth curving upward as he kept his attention on the traffic around him. "You couldn't resist chasing after me and now you're out in the open, trapped behind my lines. Where would you like to eat?"
    She stared at his profile, torn between incredulous anger and a somewhat shocked appreciation of how easily she had been maneuvered. "Someplace where I can get a drink," she stated ruefully.
    He took her to a restaurant featuring Mexican food and bought her a huge, frosty margarita. Rani munched tortilla chips and sipped at her drink in silence for several minutes, trying to make up her mind about how to handle Gage Fletcher. He let her dwell on her own churning thoughts while he selected platters of tamales and tacos for both of them.